Snowfall and bitter cold to hit all provinces except Limpopo
South Africans must brace for 'a spell of extreme winter weather' starting this weekend, with
For the thousands of runners participating in the
'However, runners should be aware of a cool change in the weather, later in the day, when a coastal low and cold front are expected to move northwards up the KwaZulu-Natal coast, introducing colder, more moist conditions to the coast and adjacent interior,' the weather service said on Thursday.
'In the coming days, a particularly intense
This system will begin affecting the Western and Northern Cape early on Saturday morning. By Monday and Tuesday, this weather system will have shifted further east over South Africa, affecting the central and eastern provinces.
'A significant and dramatic drop in daytime temperatures can be expected over all provinces, with the possible exception of Limpopo,' the weather service said, advising farmers of small stock to implement appropriate measures to prevent stock losses from exposure to bitter cold and wind.
Some of these snowfalls will be disruptive, affecting traffic flow over mountain passes — for example, the N3 highway at Van Reenen's Pass on Monday and Tuesday.
Strong, damaging surface winds will affect large parts of the interior provinces from Sunday, leading to an elevated risk of wildfires, especially over the central and eastern interior, ahead of the cold change. These extreme conditions are expected to persist over some of the eastern provinces until Wednesday, the weather service said.
Along the southwest coast, there will be strong to near-gale force winds and very rough seas from Friday, spreading to the south and east coasts during Saturday, and lasting until at least Tuesday along the east coast.
Heavy rainfall will lead to localised flooding and infrastructure damage over parts of the Eastern Cape coast and adjacent interior on Sunday, shifting to southern KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
Sunday will see 'bitterly cold daytime conditions' over many provinces with maximum temperatures unlikely to exceed +10 C. These conditions will be exacerbated by strong, gusty winds.
There is also a risk of severe thunderstorms, possibly associated with damaging hail and winds over some provinces, including North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal during Monday and Tuesday.
There will be a risk of showers or thunderstorms developing over the Drakensberg, spreading to the coast in the evening.
The weather service said that given the intensity of the cut-off low system, there is a low probability that Gauteng and the Highveld region of Mpumalanga may experience light snowfalls on Monday night, extending into Tuesday.
'However at this stage there is significant uncertainty among the various numeric weather prediction models in this regard.'
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